Thousands of state government and community college employees in Washington have overwhelmingly ratified a new one-year contract that would secure raises they lost out on in July.

Nearly 5,300 members of the Washington Public Employees Association didn’t get a 3% pay hike other state workers received July 1 because they failed to approve their two-year deal in time for lawmakers to account for it in the state budget .

For the past three weeks, these state government and community college employees voted on separate tentative agreements . Both were approved by more than 90% of those who participated, the union announced Monday .

“We’re glad to have ratification done and this round of negotiations behind us,” association president Amanda Hacker said in an email.

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